The door has been opened for more widespread use of Tasers. But what will that cost? What will the training include? And what will the impact be?

The provincial announcement allowing police forces to equip frontline officers with Tasers represents a major change in standard equipment. The roll-out will be slow; Toronto police estimate it will take a full year, while others say upwards of two years.

Questions remain about whether the weapon will result in reduced harm, what training will be involved and exactly how much broader use of Tasers will cost.

The province committed no additional funding for equipping frontline officers with Tasers.

“It’ll be a priority discussion between the police and the board,” said deputy chief Mike Federico when asked about cost.

What will the extra four hours of Taser training being tacked on to the standard eight hours cover?

In a news conference announcing the new Taser rules, Federico said the training will focus on “judgment.” The Ontario Police College certifies trainers, who will then train their respective police forces, according to a spokesperson for the college.

Steve Summerville, a retired police officer who worked as a use-of-force trainer for nearly 20 years, says this will probably focus on the behaviour of the officer. “It will likely cover your areas of de-escalation techniques and de-escalation training, it will emphasize your verbal strategies — what you say, how you say it — and with that, keeping in mind your tone, the pitch of your voice, the rate of your speaking,” he said.

Will increased Taser access reduce police shootings?

“It’s absolutely impossible to make that claim or to refute that claim. No one has a crystal ball,” said Julian Falconer, a lawyer who has represented families of people killed by police. “But suffice to say this: If they continue to train police officers the way they do today, then an emotionally disturbed person with a knife who’s not responding to police commands is seen, as a result of their training, as someone who poses an imminent threat of serious bodily harm or death.”

In those circumstances, Falconer said, “Officers are trained and have been trained for decades to terminate the threat. To shoot to kill.”

Are Tasers lethal?

Tasers are typically referred to now as “less-lethal,” but their use does sometimes lead to death, as reflected in two high-profile Canadian cases. Tasers are often cited as a contributing factor to deaths, though medical conditions are also found to contribute.

“In many cases, a conducted energy weapon causes less injury than would a baton or a police dog, but that benefit must be balanced against the risk (however small) of death or serious injury from everything from a fall to ventricular fibrillation,” reads the report’s section on medical risks.

The inquest into Firman’s death resulted in 21 recommendations released July 23.

“I can’t believe that the government has taken those recommendations into consideration” in making this decision, said Marcus Firman, Aron’s father. “Many of those recommendations (speak of) crisis intervention, which I believe would be a better resource rather than willy-nilly giving Tasers out.”

Marcus said more emphasis should instead be placed on calling in mobile crisis intervention teams, which pair a mental health nurse with a uniformed officer trained to help de-escalate situations involving the mentally ill.